1 BILLY’S TRIP
“Mal is late,” Billy sees, but Ma told him not to go by himself.
Promise not to go without Mal
“Maybe Mal is sick. Maybe he wants to see if I have guts to go by myself.”
Billy asks himself, “do you think you can do it?”
“This is not my first time to go to Corner Cove before, and I think I can do it today.” Billy looks the way he wants to go way before he makes up his mind.
“If you think you can do it, maybe you should try.” Says who? Oh-oh.
Billy swims down the creek until he comes to a low branch that goes most of the way across the brook. You can swim around the branch, but he remembers that makes you take a long time.
“I am a little mallard,” Billy thinks. “I can be smart, go under the branch, and be early. Today, everyone at Corner Cove can see how grown-up and brave I am”.
Billy puts his head down and ducks under the branch.
But when he comes up on the other side, there are more twigs and leaves. Billy gets his neck twisted all funny, then slips, half swims, and half hangs from the branch. Oh no!
“Help!” Billy cried. “HELP!”
“Yes? Can I help you?” Mr. Crow is in front of Billy in a second. “I live in a tree
“I was waiting in the branches.”
nearby,” says the crow, “and I see you have problems.”
Billy says, “I think I’m stuck.”
“Why are you by yourself?” Mr. Crow asks. He hops around and looks at the twigs.
“I think my brother is sick,” Billy says. “Mr. Crow, can you help me?”
“I will try,” the crow says. Crows are the smartest birds in the forest. Billy is lucky he is there. Mr. Crow can free him from the branch.
“Where are you going?” asks the crow.
“Corner Cove.”
“I see.” Mr. Crow taps away at the leaves some more, then says, “I think this is O.K. now, but be careful, because it’s going to go boing.”
Sure enough, the branch lets go of Billy, who splashes down into the water.
Billy shakes his head then smiles at the crow. “Thank you, Mr. Crow!”
“You are welcome. Now go the safe way to Corner Cove.”
On his way, Billy thinks, if they ask why I am late, I will say I talk with Mr. Crow. What a grand old crow he is.
2 THE MALLARDS FIND A NEW HOME
“Ma, this place looks real good! A place to swim, lots of grass (with yummy bugs), plenty of shade—Step Creek looks like a perfect place for our family!” The biggest mallard is the mother, and the one doing all the talking is Mal, the oldest child.
But there is a problem.
Mr. Crow says the heron lives at the waterfall, and getting him in a bad mood may be scary because herons eat mallard chicks.
“Ma, this place looks real good!”
“Still want to live here?” he asks. “Or do you think your little Billy and his baby sister Gum are scared of herons?”
“Let me go talk with Mr. Heron,” Ma mallard says.
And when she comes back, she is all smiles
“It is settled. We are staying! Last one in is a rotten egg!” she says. And all four mallards waddle to the edge of the stream, then jump in laughing.
Billy and Gum like their Step Creek home, but they like going to Far End most. It is a big pond nearby you can splash as much as you want. Carp and mallards come from other places too.
What they like most is seeing Mr. Heron fly (No; they are not scared of him). Maybe it is the wide open space. Billy and Gum always cheer as Mr. Heron flies and cheer even louder when he lands on the lake.
“Do it again! Do it again!” they cry. And, “Can you show us to fly like that?”
Mr. Heron has a funny look on his face. Mallards are supposed to be afraid of herons. But they are treating him like a hero!
That evening, the heron goes to Ma Mallard.
“Mrs. Mallard, I must say what I can’t.”
“Mrs. Mallard, I think I must be angry and tell you to keep your cute little chicks away from me, but I am starting to like them too much and I cannot.” With that, he goes home.
Mal asks, “What does Mr. Heron want?”
Ma Mallard says, “I am sure I do not know.”
Mr. Heron probably does not know himself.
The next day, Billy and Gum swim at Step Creek while Ma and Mal nap nearby.
Billy gulps when he sees a shadow fall over their play. It is the heron, but he does not have the fun look like when he flies and makes the mallards cheer.
“Mr. Heron looks…evil!” Billy thinks.
“Are you going to eat us?” Billy asks.
“Eat?! What are you talking about?”
“Well, you eat mallard chicks.” Billy says in a small voice.
“Oh that. Small, yellow, baby chicks, just out of the eggs,” Mr. Heron says.
“Not big chicks like us?” Billy looks over at Gum. Whew.
“No. You probably don’t even taste good,” said Mr. Heron with a smile.
“You won’t eat big chicks like us?”
But if the visit is a friendly one, why the dark look, Billy thinks.
“The heron is a big bird that everyone is a little scared of, but I think of you two as friends now.” Mr. Heron says. “I am not supposed to have good friends.”
So, thinks Billy that dark look…Mr. Heron is not evil, just lonely!
“Look, we can keep a secret about being ‘good friends,’ if you want.” Billy tells Mr. Heron. “But to tell you the truth, we’ll always be a little scared of you—in a good way—for being the big bird you are and being able to do so many things.”
“Sh!” says the heron. It sounds like Mal and Ma are waking from their naps, and Mr. Heron flies away.
“Want to go for a walk?” Billy says to Mal and Gum as the three swim away without their mother. “We’re not little yellow chicks just out of the egg anymore.
Ma Mallard is screaming, “Don’t go without me!”
Billy can be heard, “Come along, Ma; we won’t let anything happen to you.”
3 HE KNOWS HOW TO LISTEN
“What’s that? A female?” Poor Junior.
“What is that? A female?”
Poor Junior. He hears that a lot. But his mother says his head is going to get all green someday. Right now, it is only the area right around the duckbill that is green. The rest of him is brown, except his back is all folds. Just wait, she says, he is going to be as good-looking as his father.
And Junior starts changing…
“Listen to your Mom,” a friend Maggie says. “I am on your side.”
It feels good to have even one friend.
So Junior decides to listen. Every day, he notices his head gets greener. Even his belly starts turning white, and his breast turns into a darker color.
“Junior, you are starting to look real different!” Maggie says one day. That makes him very happy.
We’re coming to hear the story!
About this time, a human named June begins telling stories at the park.
Junior decides to listen to stories now to pass the time. Sometimes he goes to Duck Pond to call his family to come hear stories. Maggie usually listens too.
You’ve made it, Junior!
But the day comes when Junior goes to Duck Pond himself. Once he gets in with the other males, there is no way to tell who Junior is, since he looks just like them.
Maybe Junior’s mother says to him that if he swims today in that first creek, probably no ignorant human being will say, “What is that? A female?”
When ice forms over Duck Pond, it looks like Junior—who looks like all the other males--and Maggie—who looks like all the other females--take a walk on it. And it’s not real clear, but she seems to say, “good things happen to those who listen, Junior.”
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